INDEX has taken up a program to build the capacity of women UP members and empower them through information sharing so that they can perform their roles and responsibilities properly. Towards the end, INDEX had a series of open dialogue with the women UP members and the Local Government Ministry. Index believes that updated and relevant information will help rural women to:
§ Have access to relevant information through appropriate technology
§ Empowerment of women
§ Develop bargaining power
§ Ensure better access to various services
§ Develop management skills
§ Enhance their efficiency.
The ultimate result of this capacity building initiative of the female UP members will have a long-term effect, which will systematically enable the elected women UP members to establish their rights and play effective role in the development process at the grass root level and ensure Good-Governance at the lowest tier of the power and administrative structure, and ultimately empower women.
Having women UP member in local government is a recent phenomenon in Bangladesh. Previously there was only quota system for the women UP members. In the last two UP elections, the female members had been elected by direct vote. Apparently this is a major shift in the whole local government system. However, the local government system still remains very much patriarchal and male-dominated which hinders the women members from enjoying their power and rights properly. In our society, there are very little change in behaviour and attitude towards women. Most of the women members are considered to be ornamental and their male counterparts act behind the screen on their behalf. Women members are not encouraged by their male colleagues to be aware of their rights, roles and responsibilities in local government. The female UP members also have little access to information. This gender discriminatory situation does not permit the women UP members to establish their credibility in the community and serve the people, particularly rural women. Providing knowledge and skills to women members in using information technology (IT) could help them to uphold their positions in the local government structure, having better access to information.
The major focus of this project is to capacity building of elected women UP members to have an equal access to any relevant information about their rights, roles and responsibilities, use of local resources for the development of their community and coordination among local government authority. The ultimate goal of this endeavour is to decentralize the power and authority of local government so that the women UP members can perform as changed agents to create an enabling environment in the local community and ensure good governance.
The primary beneficiaries of the proposed project are newly elected women members of Union Parishad who will ultimately serve for the disadvantaged women and men living in the rural area by contributing in the democratization process of the society.
Communication is power. UP women members must have access to information to establish and bargain for their rights in their constituencies, to set a trend of accountability and transparency. The empowerment of elected women UP members through IT is totally a new idea. This will be the first initiative in Bangladesh. Since all the developed countries are run by technology based management, Bangladesh also needs an emerging step towards this.
As a first step, we propose to set up community information centers that will combine computer literacy training facilities with online Internet connectivity in villages where local women can obtain computer literacy skills and information, easily produce content, and provide a variety of computer-related services to the local community, such as word processing, desktop publishing, e-mail, voice mail, personal photos for loan applications, access to government forms, regulations and other information.
This would also enable electronic discussion between target community – women UP members, children so that those who are unable to walk too far can still participate in community debate.
Once the IT system is developed and women UP members and other beneficiaries are trained, they will be in a position to train other local community people. At the end of the project, women UP members and other local community people will be able to run the project without any external help. This concept and outcome of the project can easily be replicable and introduced into other areas of Bangladesh or in any other part of the world as model of development.
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